2000s All-Decade Team

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Cavaliers 2000s All-Decade Team - G - Andre Miller In their first three decades of existence, the Cavaliers drafted and acquired some extremely talented point guards, but none of those stars achieved what Miller did with the Cavaliers: lead the NBA in assists. His 882 helpers distributed in 2001-02 are still tops for a single season in Cleveland and, despite playing just three full seasons with the Cavs, Miller still ranks 7th on the franchise’s all-time assists (2,015).

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Cavaliers 2000s All-Decade Team - G - Andre Miller After leading his Utah squad to the NCAA Championship game in 1998, Miller was selected with the 8th overall pick of the 1999 Draft and averaged double-digit scoring during his three-year run with Cleveland, upping his average every season. On July 30, 2002, the Cavaliers dealt Miller and Bryant Stith to the L.A. Clippers in exchange for Darius Miles and Harold Jamison.

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Cavaliers 2000s All-Decade Team - G - Andre Miller Miller was named to the All-Rookie First Team following his first year in Cleveland and is still the only Cavalier to average double-digit assists for a season. Now in his 14th season, Miller – who played for five teams after the Cavaliers – has missed all of three games in his NBA career due to injury.

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Cavaliers 2000s All-Decade Team - G - Eric Snow The former Canton McKinley and Michigan State standout was originally drafted by the Milwaukee Bucks and dealt to the SuperSonics. But he made his name after being traded to Philly, where he helped form a dynamic backcourt with Allen Iverson. On July 20, 2004, the Cavs sent Kedrick Brown and Kevin Ollie to the Sixers in exchange for the durable Snow – who missed just a single game in his first three seasons in Cleveland.

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Cavaliers 2000s All-Decade Team - G - Eric Snow Snow, who played under the legendary Judd Heathcoate at Michigan State, won the J. Walter Kennedy Citizenship Award in 2005 – joining Austin Carr and Luol Deng as the only Cavaliers to win the award. Snow started 127 straight games for the Cavaliers until Daniel Gibson usurped his starting spot on January 20, 2007. Snow now serves as an assistant coach with the Florida Atlantic men’s basketball team.

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Cavaliers 2000s All-Decade Team - G - Eric Snow A tenacious defender, whose strength and savvy often allowed him to guard three positions, Snow was never known as a scorer. His best offensive season as a Cavalier came in 2006-07, when he averaged 9.0 ppg. But that same year, his defensive prowess helped lead the Wine and Gold to their first ever Finals appearance (although it was Snow’s second career trip to the Finals) – checking Vince Carter as the Cavs got past New Jersey and Chauncey Billups in Cleveland’s epic ECF victory over the Pistons.

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Cavaliers 2000s All-Decade Team - F - LeBron James We’ve gone through the decades and studied generations of Cavalier greats, but quite simply – LeBron James is the best forward and the best player in the history of the franchise. He was an international phenom before he ever left high school and, true to form, LeBron actually exceeded the hype after the Wine and Gold selected him with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2003 NBA Draft. He went on to win Rookie of the Year and two more MVPs with the Cavaliers, who he led to the franchise’s only NBA Finals appearance in 2007.

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Cavaliers 2000s All-Decade Team - F - LeBron James James, a four-time league MVP and future Hall of Famer, has also won two Olympic gold medals, a scoring title, was named to ten All-Star Games (winning MVP twice), ten All-NBA teams, six All-Defensive teams and is still the Wine and Gold’s all-time leading scorer. His litany of huge performances are equally amazing – from netting a triple-double in first career playoff game against Washington in 2005 to his game-winning three-pointer at the buzzer against Orlando in the Eastern Conference Finals to his mind-boggling playoff performance against Detroit in which he almost single-handedly topped the Pistons, scoring the squad’s final 25 points in a dramatic 109-107 double-OT victory.

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Cavaliers 2000s All-Decade Team - F - LeBron James No. 23 returns to Cleveland as the Cavaliers’ all-time leader in points scored (15,251), scoring average (27.8 PPG), field goals made (5,415) and attempted (11,403), free throws made (3,650) and attempted (4,917), steals (955) and minutes played (22,119). He also ranks second in team history in three-pointers made (771), second in assists (3,810), third in defensive rebounds (3,183), fourth in blocks (482), fifth in total rebounds (3,861) and is tied for seventh in games played (548).

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Cavaliers 2000s All-Decade Team - F - Anderson Varejao The first pick of the second round by Orlando in the 2004 Draft, Varejao was traded to Cleveland along with Drew Gooden and Steven Hunter for Tony Battie and second-rounders in 2005 and 2007. This past season – his 10th with the Cavs – Andy finished 4th in rebounds per game (9.7) and 6th in offensive and defensive boards per game in the Eastern Conference. On January 2, against the team that drafted him, Varejao tied a franchise record with 25 rebounds.

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Cavaliers 2000s All-Decade Team - F - Anderson Varejao After battling the injury bug for three straight seasons, Varejao was relatively healthy this year. Nicknamed “the Wild Thing” because of his relentless style of play, Varejao was named to the NBA All-Defensive Second Team in 2009-10, the same year he received votes for NBA Sixth Man of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year. He’s tied with his close friends, Zydrunas Ilgauskas and LeBron James, for the most playoff games (71) in team history.

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Cavaliers 2000s All-Decade Team - F - Anderson Varejao This season, Varejao continued his climb through the Cavaliers’ all-time record book. At the conclusion of the 2013-14 season, Andy entered the team’s top ten in offensive rebounds (3rd; 1,398), defensive rebounds (5th; (2,775), total boards (4th; 4,173), steals (8th; 499), blocks (8th; 376) and games played (534).

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Cavaliers 2000s All-Decade Team - C - Zydrunas Ilgauskas After being tabbed with the 20th overall pick of the 1996 NBA Draft, the little-known Lithuanian center had a stellar rookie season – playing in all 82 games, averaging 13.9 ppg, winning MVP honors at the Schick Rookie Challenge at All-Star Weekend and leading the Cavaliers to the playoffs, where they gave the heavily-favored Pacers all they could handle. But Z was plagued by career-threatening foot injuries in the next three seasons, testing the big man’s patience, persistence and fortitude.

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Cavaliers 2000s All-Decade Team - C - Zydrunas Ilgauskas Big Z – whose uniform No. 11 was retired in a stirring ceremony at The Q on March 8, 2014 – averaged 13.8 points, 7.7 boards and 1.65 blocks per contest in 12 seasons with the Cavaliers – earning two All-Star appearances (2003, 2005) and reaching the postseason six times. In Cavs playoff history, Ilgauskas ranks 1st in offensive rebounds (180) and is tied for 1st games played (71).

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Cavaliers 2000s All-Decade Team - C - Zydrunas Ilgauskas Ilgauskas is the Cavaliers all-time leader in games played (771), offensive rebounds (2,336), total rebounds (5,904) and blocked shots (1,269). He’s second on the all-time list in points scored (10,616), defensive rebounds (3,568) and minutes played (21,823). Big Z is also one of just four players in franchise history to top the 10,000-point plateau.

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Cavaliers 2000s All-Decade Team - Head Coach - Mike Brown With 305 wins at the helm of the Wine and Gold, Brown completed his second stint with the team as the second-winningest coach in Cavaliers history – trailing only the great Lenny Wilkens (316). In his five-year stretch with Cleveland during the 2000s, Brown posted a .663 winning percentage, leading the Cavalier to the playoffs in each season and guiding them to the NBA Finals against his former squad in 2007.

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Cavaliers 2000s All-Decade Team - Sixth Man - Daniel Gibson Taken in the second round of the 2006 NBA Draft out of Texas, Gibson played seven seasons with the Wine and Gold. He averaged double-digit scoring in 2007-08 and 2010-11, but his biggest moment with the Cavaliers took place in Game 6 of the 2007 Eastern Conference Finals when he went 5-of-5 from long-distance, scoring 19 points in the fourth quarter and 31 points overall – the most scored by a rookie in a series-clinching win since Magic Johnson notched 42 points to win the 1980 NBA Finals.

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Cavaliers 2000s All-Decade Team - Sixth Man - Daniel Gibson Pound-for-pound one of the toughest defenders on the team, Gibson appeared in nearly 400 regular season games and 50 playoff contests with the Cavaliers. Nicknamed “Boobie” as a boy by his grandmother in Houston, Gibson ranks third on the Cavaliers all-time list in three-point field goals made (578) and attempted (1,419) and is fifth in team history with a .407 career percentage from beyond the arc.

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Cavaliers 2000s All-Decade Team - Honorable Mention - Larry Hughes Hughes had a brief-but-productive three-year run in Cleveland after being inked to a free agent deal in the summer of 2005. Although he was plagued by nagging injuries and personal setbacks during his time with the Cavaliers, Hughes never averaged less than 12.3 ppg with the Wine and Gold, including a 15.5 ppg mark in his first season. A former first round pick of the Sixers in 1998, Hughes was part of a massive three-team trade that sent him to Chicago midway through the 2007-08 season.

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Cavaliers 2000s All-Decade Team - Honorable Mention - Damon Jones After signing as a free agent before the 2005-06 season, the self-purported “greatest shooter in the world” played three seasons with the Wine and Gold – averaging 6.6 ppg in 209 games. Jones hit some big shots for the Cavaliers over his short stay, but none bigger than his series-clinching overtime shot in the nation’s capital. On that play, LeBron James in-bounded the ball to Larry Hughes, who quickly swung it over to an awaiting Jones, planted on the left baseline. With Antawn Jamison in his face, Jones let the 17-footer fly and it splashed home – clinching the First Round series over the Wizards and allowing Cleveland to advance to the Second Round for the first time in a dozen years.

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Cavaliers 2000s All-Decade Team - Honorable Mention - Drew Gooden After Carlos Boozer’s controversial departure during the 2004 offseason, the Cavaliers made a deal with Orlando that sent Tony Battie to the Magic Kingdom in exchange for Gooden and Anderson Varejao. And in four rock-solid seasons with the Wine and Gold, Gooden averaged double-figures in each and led the squad in rebounding in three of the first four. Known for his “Gucci patch” and his trademark sound effect – “Yeeee!!” the colorful forward was part of the blockbuster deal in 2007-08 that netted Ben Wallace, Joe Smith, Wally Szczerbiak and Delonte West.

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Cavaliers 2000s All-Decade Team - Honorable Mention - Mo Williams Acquired in an offseason trade that sent Damon Jones to Milwaukee and Joe Smith to Oklahoma City, Williams spent parts of three seasons with the Wine and Gold – averaging 16.2 ppg over that stretch. His best season in Cleveland was his first – the 2008-09 campaign in which he averaged 17.8 ppg and joined LeBron James on the Eastern Conference All-Star squad – canning a pair of treys in the mid-season classic. In two postseason appearances with Cleveland, Mo averaged 15.4 ppg before being dealt along with Jamario Moon to the Clippers midway through the 2010-11 season, netting Baron Davis (and eventually, the starting point guard of the 2010s team of the decade: Kyrie Irving).